The NHL announced Friday that it has fined Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference the maximum allowed under the CBA, which is $2,500, for an obscene gesture made during Game 4 of the team's Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Montreal Canadiens Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
He didn't receive a penalty, but the NHL — Mike Murphy, one assumes, due to the Gregory Campbell Conflict of Interest Clause involving the Bruins and the VP of hockey operations — felt it violated Rule 7.5 (ii) of the official rules:
(ii) Any player who uses obscene gestures on the ice or anywhere in the rink before, during or after the game. The Referee shall report the circumstances to the Commissioner of the League for further disciplinary action.
This will no doubt come as a shock to Ference, who expertly defended himself Thursday night in postgame interviews by claiming "my glove got caught up" and "that's not part of my repertoire." This was like watching a kid with chocolate syrup all over his face claiming he doesn't even like hot fudge sundaes and doesn't know who stole the ice cream from the freezer.
Hey, you learn the hard way: Next time, Ference should go with "I thought I was skating in the 'middle finger zone'" or "Wait, this isn't HBO?"
Meanwhile, good luck getting this song out of your head, as someone celebrates both Ference flipping the bird and Montreal fans famously flipping out and calling the police earlier this season.